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Dentons is pleased to announce that the Firm has been ranked in 99 categories in the 2018 edition of The Legal 500 UK, and a total of 226 Dentons lawyers have been recognised across their respective practice areas.

In Lee v. Ashers Baking Company Limited and Others, the Supreme Court considered whether a bakery's refusal to supply a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage was discriminatory on the grounds of sexual orientation or political opinion

With 172 locations in 76 countries, Dentons is home to top-tier talent that is found at the intersection of geography, industry knowledge and substantive legal experience. Working with Dentons, you will have the opportunity to learn from the best lawyers in the industry at the largest law firm in the world.

Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, has launched a new Market Insights publication entitled “Digital Transformation and the Digital Consumer”, which examines the legal implications of the online economy.

Dentons is pleased to celebrate the first anniversary of the Firm's combination with Maclay Murray & Spens, creating a UK footprint of six offices: three in England (London, Milton Keynes and Watford) and three in Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen).

Franchise news: Russia changes registration law

Franchise news: Russia changes registration law

In Russia, a trade mark licence is a necessary element of each franchise agreement. The franchise agreements must be made in writing and registered with the Russian Patent Office.

If the agreement is not in writing or has not been registered it is not valid.

Franchisors need to be careful not to allow agreements to run on after they have expired, as this may violate the requirement that amendments have to be made in writing.

There is another important change relating to the form and registration of the franchising agreement. For a long time there has been a discussion among practitioners and the business community concerning the question of whether it is reasonable to require franchisors to register the franchise agreement as a whole. This rule is cumbersome and causes significant cost and delay.

From October 2014 there will be a relaxation of the registration law in that the absence of registration of a franchising agreement will no longer lead to its invalidity, rather the new law provides that “provision of complex intellectual property rights shall be deemed not implemented”. This, at least, should allow franchisors to to proceed with implementation before registration thus avoiding the wait between execution of the agreement and its final confirmation through registration. On the other hand it is difficult to see how there can be a franchise agreement without an IP licence, so, for those franchisors with sufficient time to register, registration will remain the safe option.

Probably the most significant improvement of the registration law is the new option to file a simple notification when the franchise agreement has been signed instead of a copy of the full agreement. The new Article 1232 RFCC coming into force in October 2014 allows submission for registration at parties’ choice of either (i) the whole contract or (ii) a notary certified extract from the contract or (iii) a simple notification of the conclusion of the agreement, which is signed by both parties. Accordingly the parties will no longer be required to submit the whole agreement. This will save considerable translation costs and represents a significant improvement from the point of view of confidentiality.

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